Electronic communication is a method for exchanging digital messages and information amongst multiple individuals. Electronic communication may operate across the Internet or other electronic communication networks. Examples of electronic communication include email, mobile and computer applications (“apps”), Short Messaging Service (SMS) communication, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) communications and web-based applications facilitating conveyance of information using a web browser.
Electronic communications have become a primary method by which people communicate information. One form of electronic communication that has become particularly popular is online question-and-answer services. In general, a question-and-answer service is a service that allows its end users to engage in dialog by posting questions or other opening content, posting responses to such content, and/or viewing content including responses to questions that others have posted. In some systems, ongoing dialog can occur amongst multiple participants and users contribute content and respond to content contributed by others. Thus, Q&A services primarily act to store, organize and facilitate the distribution of user-generated content.
In many existing question-and-answer services, users ask questions to a predefined community of users registered with the service. Often, questions are organized within predefined topics in order to aggregate users having a common interest in the subject matter. After a question is submitted, the asker waits for a qualified member to see the question, and hopefully, respond with a relevant, informative and accurate response.
Existing Q&A models typically rely on attracting audiences of primarily strangers around specific topics, with the hope that human nature and shared interests will lead users to help one another. The self-selecting nature of these communities, and the fact that users typically do not know each other outside of the community, can lead to a wide variety of responder backgrounds and qualification levels. Many responders may be unqualified from the subjective viewpoint of the asker, resulting in unwanted and low quality answers for both the asker and future readers of the dialog. Existing solutions to this challenge, such as point systems or cumbersome biographical information collection, raise the hurdle to participation and often discourage qualified contributors.
Some systems attempt to provide question-and-answer functionality with open-ended subject matter and no inherent system of organization. However, in such systems a wide diversity of subject matters may inhibit the formation of an active user community within any given topic, which may in turn yield significant delays between the time a question is asked and the time a meaningful answer is received.
Other prior question-and-answer systems implement subject matter specialization in order to promote development of an active community providing timely and high quality answers. However, such systems may require a large user base in order to ensure that a sufficient number of users with relevant knowledge and motivation to respond are regularly viewing questions to provide answers in a timely manner. Attracting and maintaining a sufficient user base that is ready, willing, and capable of engaging in timely, productive dialog, can be challenging and elusive for any site operator.
Privacy issues may also be important in maximizing the effectiveness of online communications. It is human nature to trust certain people or groups of people, and go to them for insights and discourse. Yet the most valuable responses might have come from people outside these trusted groups, including people we don't know. It is often privacy concerns that stop us from going beyond our trusted groups for insights and discourse.
Some systems allow users to participate anonymously. However, such systems may be subject to trolling, abusive content and low-quality discourse. Other systems require publishing real-names from users to provide accountability and avoid such problems. However, many users may be hesitant to share information publicly under their own names, even if the information is of relatively high quality. To address these privacy concerns, we avoid opening our conversations to others, foregoing access to what might have been the most useful responses.